Tim Farrell/The Star-LedgerCorine Samuel (right) is comforted by the casket of her son Anthony Mendoza III of Jersey City who died of neuroblastoma.

NEWARK — The little boy didn’t have much of an appetite. All he wanted was red juice, vanilla ice cream, and most of all, his mother.

It was nightfall on a recent Saturday and 6-year-old Anthony Mendoza III curled up in mom’s bed as he did so many times since Stage 4 neuroblastoma, an aggressive form of cancer, took over his young life four years ago.

As they lay together in the quiet darkness of her room, she began to talk to her “baby,” the kid who made silly faces, whose smile was brighter than birthday candles. She could sense the end was near.

"I asked him if he was ready to take the Lord’s hand,’’ said Corine Samuel. "I wanted him to know that it was all right. I wanted him to go hold the Lord’s hand.’’

Anthony reached upward as if heaven had come his way. He then looked at his 25-year-old mother, telling her in his own cute language how much he loved her.

"I love you a big giant, Mommy,’’ he said.

"Mommy loves you a big giant, too,’’ she said.

When Samuel woke up the next morning, she nudged her son as she always did. He did not move. Anthony’s fight was over; the end had never been in doubt, only the day it would come.

Many of us first met him here in this column in December, just before Christmas. He and his mother were away for a weekend and returned home to find their Ferry Street apartment in Newark had been fixed up.

The makeover was done by students from Fairleigh Dickinson University, who are members of SLICE (Student Leaders in Community Entreprenuership). Their student chapter is part of Healing Spaces, a Wayne-based nonprofit organization that decorates dream bedrooms for kids with cancer and other chronic illnesses.

Children come to Healing Spaces from several hospitals, including St. Barnabas, Tomorrow’s Children’s Institute at Hackensack University Medical Center, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center and others.

The spruced-up apartment brought comfort to mother and son, who spent their days enjoying each other, not knowing how much time Anthony had left. Many of those who read this story called her with words of kindness. Some bought him toys, a video game for his Wii system. For that, she says thank you.

After Christmas, the tumor Samuel called Anthony’s "boo-boo’’ began to spread. But Anthony was still the playful little boy who touched everybody by doing his own thing, his own way.

Vanilla ice cream was "white ice cream." A grilled sandwich "with yellow" was grilled cheese, one of his favorites. He stayed for a while at the Valerie Fund Center at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center before he came home for the last time.

Clarita Carino, his nurse, had no problem getting him the food he wanted. His personality, she said, made her fall for him the first time he came there for treatment.

"He was such a happy kid, even though he was in pain," Carino said.

You could see that in the pictures of him at his funeral Thursday at the McLaughlin Funeral Home in Jersey City. He’s smiling alongside his mother, and his grin is so big it just may have dried the tears of those so overwhelmed that he’s gone.

Everyone he knew, and many he didn’t, were there. His family, his father, Anthony Mendoza Jr, and the many cartoon characters he loved to play with most.

Super Mario was nestled between the blooms of white dahlias and carnations. Sponge Bob and his sidekick, Patrick the pink starfish, were near Spider-Man. Jessie and Woody, the girl and boy action figures in Toy Story, helped round out the floral display, and there also was a sprinkling of race cars.

Anthony was asleep, peacefully, in a white suit, olive-colored striped tie, emerald rosary beads draped around his hand. With him were a brown-and-caramel stuffed puppy, his favorite black blanket filled with bright diamond-shaped colors — blue, orange, gold, pink— connected in rows. A Spider-Man ball was at the foot of his casket, a heart shaped pillow, too.

Loved ones came forward to say goodbye, many of them standing there, nodding their heads in disbelief. The hugs they gave Samuel were warm and soothing as the voice of singer Celine Dion filling the room. Track 6, "My Precious One,’’ played softly from a CD player.

"He was good boy,’’ Anthony’s father said. "I lost a friend."

FDU students help remodel home of Newark child diagnosed with cancerLast summer, Farleigh Dickinson University students Nereen Hassan and Greg Ellis took part in a project with Healing Spaces, a Wayne-based charity that partners designers with volunteers to remodel the bedrooms of seriously ill children in need. When they returned to campus this fall, they started a chapter of the organization at the school and found overwhelming interest. Last week, student volunteers joined designer and Healing Spaces board member April Shoemaker at the Newark apartment of Corine Samuel, a single mother whose 6-year-old son, Anthony Mendoza III, suffers from stage 4 neuroblastoma. (Video by Nyier Abdou/The Star-Ledger)

Isabel, his cat, did, too. The 9-month-old feline sat for a moment Friday at the foot of Anthony’s empty bed where she would sleep with him. Corine was in the living room talking about her son, looking again at pictures of him on the wall and in frames on the television stand.

As always, he’s smiling. In one, though, he’s pensive, his round eyes innocent with curiosity. In all the shots, except for a school picture, his hair is gone from the chemotherapy. But he’s making faces, playing a toy guitar, laughing.

You’d never know by looking at him that his cancer had recurred and come back stronger. You’d never know he sipped soda laced with morphine to ease the pain or that he didn’t want to go to the hospital the night he stretched his fingertips toward God.

For Samuel. Anthony was everything, her life.

"From the time I woke up,’’ she said. "From the time I went to sleep. I can’t believe he’s gone.’’